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Honors students punished for plagiarism

Parents worry "mistakes" will tarnish reputations

Published: Saturday, September 9, 2006 at 3:15 a.m.

Last Modified: Saturday, September 9, 2006 at 5:06 a.m.

LAKEWOOD RANCH -- Teachers at Lakewood Ranch High School gave failing grades to a group of honors-level English students who were accused of plagiarizing work from Internet sites, an administrator and the school principal said.

Several students in the sophomore honors-level English program received "zero" grades on a summer assignment.

Spokeswoman Margi Nanney said the district is aware of the plagiarism accusations and the failing grades that resulted.

Lakewood Ranch High School administrators held meetings this week on how to respond, Principal Mike Wilder said.

Wilder and Nanney would not say how many students were involved. But one parent said his son told him 16 of 20 students failed the assignment in his class, one of four sophomore honors English classes.

The parent, whose son received a failing grade on the assignment because some of his work mirrored a report on a Web site, said he visited with the boy's teacher about the issue Friday. He said some angry parents have talked of getting lawyers involved.

For the two teachers who graded the suspect papers, any indication of plagiarism led to a "zero" grade for the assignment, which was a summer-long requirement to read one book and do a report on it.

Some parents are worried that even the hint of plagiarism could tarnish the academic reputations, and collegiate or employment aspirations, of some of Manatee County's brightest students.

Parents are more concerned over the possible long-term ramifications of their children being labeled plagiarists.

"That's the biggest thing: the mark on their record," said one parent who asked to remain anonymous. "That will never go away."

The grades were recorded in the students' online gradebook, along with a note from their teacher that the work appeared to be plagiarized. The online gradebook is a running record of a student's performance.

The alleged plagiarism also highlights the struggle by teachers to keep up with tech-savvy cheaters in the digital age, when term papers can be bought online and the right answer is always just a mouse click away.

For a group of top Manatee County students, however, the line between Internet research and outright plagiarism has been blurred, and perhaps crossed.

Wilder hedged against, however, calling the students cheaters and would not say how many sophomores were suspected of pilfering answers for a summer reading assignment.

"There is enough concern on my part to engage in a discussion," Wilder said. "But for this particular situation, we don't want to call anybody cheaters. We're not saying these kids are plagiarists. They're kids who made mistakes."

The assignment was to read "The Epic of Gilgamesh" over the summer, and report on the themes, symbols and significance of the ancient Babylonian text.

When many of the students turned in work with similar answers, teachers became suspicious.

Some students lifted entire passages from online sites such as 123helpme.com and CheatHouse.com, where term papers and school projects can be downloaded and copied. Many of the answers were similar, although the extent of the cheating "is not a big conspiracy," Wilder said.

None of the students will be expelled or suspended, and administrators are working with parents to give new grades to students whose work contained minor inconsistencies.

Skewing the debate is the level of understanding among students, Wilder said, as some students simply did not cite their online research, while others lifted passages wholesale.

Administrators are trying to decide whether to regrade the assignment, allowing some students to earn credit for portions that indicate independent work.

Nanney said the Manatee schools have a zero-tolerance policy for cheating. "We don't tolerate it," she said. "It's that simple."

But parents were left in a quandary, especially when it comes to academic futures. One father wondered whether "the baby should be thrown out with the bath water."

"Does a kid taking one four-line section from a Web site invalidate an entire assignment?" he asked.

The summer reading program varies by school district and even by school.

At North Port High School, for example, students are enticed by incentives, including a pizza party after they read three books. At Manatee High School, students are required to pick one book from a list that includes elementary fare such as "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix."

But for the incoming honors sophomores at Lakewood Ranch High School, the assignment was "The Epic of Gilgamesh," a poem about a Babylonian king. It is a challenging work, considered among the world's earliest stories.

The nature of the text, Wilder said, may have led to the reliance on Internet sources, which are easy to find but not always reliable.

Most sites charge a fee, and the most complicated subjects tend to cost the most money.

But enterprising students can find essays on everything from euthanasia and capital punishment to master's-level term papers on biophysics and Shakespeare on the sites.

Site operators make nominal efforts to warn against plagiarism, although the notion that students are using the Internet for research alone is naive.

In an e-mail, Jens Schriver, the director of CheatHouse.com, said cheaters have always found a way to beat the system. The Internet, he said, just makes the pursuit a bit easier.

"Yes, students use CheatHouse.com to plagiarize and are attracted by the cheeky and irreverent name," Schriver wrote. "But the vast majority of students use it for inspiration -- just like they would use any other library, be it online or offline."

This story appeared in print on page A1

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